Online entities offer a wide variety of electronic content and services to a variety of different devices, including personal computers (PCs), electronic book viewers, portable digital assistants (PDAs), mobile telephones, pocket PCs, smart phones, televisions, set-top boxes, digital video recorders (DVRs), and gaming consoles. These devices often access various web pages and web services, such as those associated with online stores or other providers of audio/visual content, software programs, digital books, or other electronic content. Further, these devices generally incorporate a wide variety of hardware and include a wide variety of operating systems and software applications.
For example, processes that provide access to electronic content and services generally require a user of a device to access a login page and enter authentication credentials, including a user name and/or a password, prior to completing a request for electronic content or services. However, these processes are generally unable to discern whether a combination of hardware and software associated with a particular device supports the requested electronic content. These processes, in general, merely provide the requested electronic content to the device, while leaving to the user the task of determining whether the device supports the electronic content.
Further, even a user who is familiar with the capabilities and features of a device may be unable to easily identify electronic content supported by the device. For example, web pages and services associated with providers may organize electronic content and services according to title or functionality, but not according to a file format associated with the electronic content, specific hardware and/or software applications required by the electronic content or services, or other parameters indicative of whether the device supports the electronic content. Although capable of accessing web pages and services to obtain electronic content, many devices may be unable to easily parse the displayed data to identify supported electronic content based on specific software-related or hardware-related features. Therefore, systems and methods are needed to overcome the limitations of traditional processes that provide electronic content and services to devices.